1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of illumination lamp equipment to be mounted on the vehicle illumination such as the interior lighting of the window control switch, the interior lighting of the ashtray, and the foot lighting, or on the front panel of the electronic equipment, comprising a LED, a small light bulb, or the like for indicating the operating position or the driving condition.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional lighting tool used for illumination lamp equipment described above includes LEDs or small light bulbs. The exposed portion of the LED or the small light bulb is made of glass or synthetic resin. Therefore, it is difficult to mount these illumination lamps on the vehicle or on the electronic equipment in the exposed state and it may be broken very easily in the exposed state.
Therefore, in general, a housing for mounting the illumination lamp such as the LED or the small light bulb is manufactured and the illumination lamp is fitted into the housing. However, since the housing is constructed of two halves or formed into cylindrical shape, it is necessary to combine two halves and secure with an adhesive agent with the illumination lamp mounted, or to close the lid with the illumination lamp mounted. Therefore, there is a problem in that the point of fixation between the housing and the illuminating lamp is susceptible to generation of a gap, which may result in entering of dust or backlash, in addition to the problem in that the number of components or the number of manufacturing steps increases.
Consequently, as a measure to solve the conventional problems described above, molding the illumination lamp with a nylon base synthetic resin, which is normally used for molding, is conceivable. However, in the method of molding the illumination lamp with nylon base resin, the temperature of the resin is in the range of 250 to 300xc2x0 C. and the injection pressure is in the range of 400 to 1300 Kg/cm2 at the time of injection as shown in FIG. 5. Thus, the illumination lamp such as the LED or the small light bulb may disadvantageously be melted by the temperature of the resin or may be broken by the injection pressure.
Accordingly, the present invention is intended to solve the problems described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an illumination lamp equipment in which the illumination lamp is not melted or damaged during injection molding by employing a hot-melt resin as a material for molding the illumination lamp.
In order to achieve the object described above, the illumination lamp equipment is constructed in such a manner that the illumination lamp such as a LED or a small light bulb is molded with a hot-melt resin with a part of the head portion of the illuminating lamp exposed.
The lead exposed from the molded portion may be connected to the connector, and in the case where a LED is used as an illuminating lamp, it is also possible to connect the lead of the LED to the printed board to which a resistor is connected, and then mold the LED and the printed board with the hot-melt resin except for a part of the head portion of the LED.
Alternatively, in the case where the lead of the illumination lamp constructed of a LED or a small light bulb is connected to the terminal of the connector in advance, the illumination lamp and a part of the connector are molded with the hot-melt resin with a part of the illumination lamp exposed, and a LED is used as an illumination lamp, it may be constructed in such a manner that the lead of the LED is connected to the printed board to which a resistor is connected, and then the printed board is connected in turn to the connector, and subsequently, the printed board, the LED except for a part of the head portion, and a part of the connector are molded with the hot-melt resin.